Wayanad Disaster: 13 Adivasi Families Face Housing Delays Despite Wider Rehabilitation Progress

UPDATE - follow-up to Wayanad landslides: Despite township progress, 13 Adivasi families still caught between 'no-go zones' and delayed rehab: While the main rehabilitation work for the 2024 Wayanad landslide survivors in Keralam moves forward, 13 displaced Adivasi families are still waiting for proper resettlement. Authorities have allotted houses at the Kalpetta township project to 327 families, including 149 families who received them last month.

Displacement Causes

Although the homes of these 13 Adivasi families escaped physical damage during the Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslide, officials forced them to evacuate because their settlements lie inside designated 'no-go zones' that are unsafe for living, with one settlement even falling into a 'red zone'.

Current Living Conditions

Displaced families now face a difficult choice of living situations. Some rely on government help to pay for rented houses while staying far away from their natural forest surroundings and traditional ways of earning a living. Other families chose to go back to the forest itself because building work has not yet started on the new land given to them at Puthiyavillage in Meppadi under the Forest Rights Act of 2006. One single family is still staying put at Punchirimattam in the forest because they do not want to leave their ancestral home.

Context

Disaster recovery projects often face delays when trying to balance fast relocation with complex land rights laws and tribal welfare needs. The Forest Rights Act of 2006 gives legal recognition to forest-dwelling communities, which adds specific legal steps before authorities can build new houses on alternative forest or tribal land.